Final Shot with Sir Nick Faldo

With three green jackets to his name the Englishman is a true Masters legend. He talks to Alex Jenkins about his debut, how he handled Augusta's notoriously tricky greens and his come-from-behind victory over Greg Norman in 1996

"The key to Augusta is the greens"

On his favourite win ...

All three of my wins are incredibly special but certainly 1996 stands out in a number of ways. That was the best I have ever been mentally on a golf course, and to shoot 67 with just one bogey in that kind of situation ... well, that's about as good as it gets right there. It also came at a time when I wasn't at my peak playing-wise - I was getting on a bit in my career - so I was very proud of the way I was able to get it done.

It is also without doubt the most famous of my wins. Wherever I am - especially in America - people are constantly reminding me of it. They know I have won The Open too, but they are not always correct about the details - they'll say, 'You won at Birkdale, right? and stuff like that. But the Masters in 1996 - everyone seems to remember exactly what happened and when.

On Greg Norman handling of the media ...

Huge credit to him for doing that. I couldn't have done the same. I would needed to have slept on what happened and gone back and done the interviews the next morning. To stand there and take it on the chin ... that's what I said to him on the [18th] green, I said: 'Don't let the bastards get you down' because I knew what was coming. I genuinely felt for the guy that day because that would have scarred me.

On that famous 2-iron to the 13th which set up birdie ...

The thing about that shot was the timing. It came at such a pivotal point in the round. I was originally going to go with the 5-wood but the ball wasn't sitting right, so I switched to the 2-iron, which came across as indecision on TV, but it wasn't. It was a great shot at just the right moment.

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